Session 8 - Suffering Due to Imbalance with Nature

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We will reach a state where we are all connected together in similarity to the general law of nature, which is all bestowal, goodness, and love. Then we will understand that there is no evil, and that all the forces we currently feel as blows are not bad forces. The disintegrating families, drugs, terrorism, fear of a nuclear world war, ecological and financial crises, and all the forces that seem negative to us are intended only to cause us to build the forces of love, giving, and bonding, precisely opposite to them. Anything and everything that happens to us and that we currently feel as a negative force affecting us, is sensed in us as negative only because we are opposite to the singular law.

It is always like this in life. When faced with heatstroke or hypothermia, I need to understand what needs to be done in order to balance the temperature back to normal. When my body is under pressure, like if I was preparing to dive from a great height, or if I want to climb to altitudes where there isn't enough oxygen, I must condition myself for it and create an environment and an attitude and way of thinking that brings me back to balance with the situation, with Nature.

Therefore, what type of mechanism or instrument can we now use to balance ourselves with Nature, which is currently presenting us with all kinds of negative impacts? We are suffering the beating blows from every direction, and day by day, humanity is feeling more and more united under a collective blow that's landing on all of us.

Since everything that happens to us is an expression of our oppositeness to Nature, we have to learn how to compensate for this oppositeness. Nature is presenting us with adverse phenomena, but if we overcome ourselves and correct ourselves, becoming as similar to Nature as we can, we will experience all these forces as positive, since we will be in balance with them. At that point of equivalence and balance, everything will calm—climate, family relations, international relations, economic crises, etc.—and we will find a good, positive, and beautiful life in every way.

We have to make the change gradually, and thus come ever more close to Nature's general good condition, and the positive, wholesome, and balanced environment in every way. How do we play that game? We have learned that Nature is a singular force that operates on all of us together as one, that it "wants" us to learn how to balance ourselves because then we will begin to comprehend the whole of reality. Through mutually bonding among us as one big family, we will understand where we truly are. We can obtain this wonderful connection through favorable relationships among us. And even though we may not want those connections through relationships, we know that we need them, and we will create them through fun and through playing games and acting, and by using the law of, "habit becomes a second nature."

References

"Self-realization: A continuing process of recognising that the self is not limited to the person but extends to all the intermeshed processes in the world within which our minds and bodies live. Naess: "Not saving the rain-forest, but saving that part of yourself which is the rain-forest". Another term Naess uses is "wide identification": one must at least extend one's sphere of concern to non-human beings, ideally to all forms of living and non-living entities."

"We also find that phenotypic changes in response to disturbance can be remarkably abrupt, perhaps again because of plasticity. In short, humans are an important agent driving phenotypic change in contemporary populations. Although these changes sometimes have a genetic basis, our analyses suggest a particularly important contribution from phenotypic plasticity."

Engage Yourself

Question 1: The following is a quotation from the text of the lesson:

"Since everything that happens to us is an expression of our oppositeness to Nature, we have to learn how to compensate for this oppositeness. Nature is presenting us with adverse phenomena, but if we overcome ourselves and correct ourselves, becoming as similar to Nature as we can, we will experience all these forces as positive, since we will be in balance with them. At that point of equivalence and balance, everything will calm—climate, family relations, international relations, economic crises, etc.—and we will find a good, positive, and beautiful life in every way."

Everything that happens to us is an expression of our opposite form in relation to nature, and if we are found in balance with nature, everything will calm.

Let's try to feel a little of what this is saying. Prepare yourself to take a 4 and a half minute break by watching the next video. Please, get comfortable, turn out the lights in the house or dim them if it is daytime, click on this link, choose the HD option, and look at the clip on the computer screen as wide as possible….

Okay... now in order to arrange the proportions of imbalance correctly, we will pass, with your permission, to the other side of the scale. View the clip below. (a few seconds will do the trick, there is no need to look at "this thing" to the end.) [link to clip here, if needed.]

What, in your opinion, is the reason for the incomprehensible oppositeness between the commotion in England and the harmony "under the sea," and also in your opinion, how is it possible to correct the distortion? (you may find the transcript text from this session helpful here.)

Now,... go back again (if you haven't already, and even if you have) to the first amazing clip that was photographed in the world's second largest aquarium. Pay attention to the silhouettes of the people at the bottom of the video, viewing harmony from the other side of the glass. Remember, it is possible for us to live within this harmony, to be a part of it, to be the harmony itself, and not only to look at it from the outside. With this thought freshly in mind and heart, please view the first clip an additional time.

Question 2: According to the text of the lesson, what is the connection between the state in which all humans are connected together and the general law of nature?

1. In a state in which all humans are connected together they act like the general law of nature, which connects all parts of creation together, as one body.

2. In a state in which we are connected togethe,r we are the opposite of nature.

3. There is no connection.

4. The general law of nature acts so that we cannot connect together.

Question 3: What is the action that we do all the time in relation to nature?

1. We examine how much we are like it.

2. In relation to it, we establish our relationship with another.

3. We balance ourselves in relation to the influence of nature on us (a feeling of heat, cold, pressure, etc.)

"It is a simple truth of life that all living things are connected to one another. While modern Man likes to think Himself separate from the environment and nature and not dependent upon it, the reality is, as John Donne penned, ‘no man is an island'. Our belief that we are separate from nature couldn't be further from the truth.

We are, in fact, an extension of nature and the creative living forces which shape the natural world we live in. Human beings, as one part of a dynamic living system, are interconnected with all other life on the planet and indeed with the planet itself.

A powerful illustration of our connection with nature can be found in our dependence on the Earth's natural electromagnetic environment. Not only is our physical and mental health dependent upon the natural frequencies of the Earth, it is part of the foundation upon which all life has evolved over the millennia. And while we may not consciously recognize its role in our health and well-being, we are most assuredly suffering from our interference with the natural energies of the Earth in a profound way."

According to the transcript text of this session, why do we act in opposition to nature and invite upon us pressure and blows from the side of nature?

1. So that we will balance ourselves consciously, in relation to nature, by means of correcting the connection between us.

2. Because we are not conscious of the damage that we cause with this.

3. Because it is not in our power to act otherwise.

4. No answer is correct.

Question 5: The social protest that broke out in the summer of 2011 brought with it a firm demand for social justice. Hundreds of thousands of people screamed in the streets, "The people want social justice!" Yet, for many fewer people than those who protested, is there a clear definition of what social justice is, or more precisely, an understanding of how to reach it?

How would you resolve the problem of just distribution in our world, and how would you achieve social justice? Write briefly your solution.